In a piece for Healthista, a certified hypnotherapist, based in Hampshire, has shared her thoughts on how naturally slim women stay that way.

Sue Peckham, co-creator of the 12 Weeks to Wow’ Weight Loss Programmes, has explained the eight things they do to avoid getting fat.

Ever wondered how slim women maintain their svelte physiques? Here, Sue Peckham, a certified hypnotherapist explains what they do to ensure they stay toned

1. They know diets don’t work long term

Even the leading weight loss companies admit that studies show that around 85 per cent of people who lose weight on a diet will put all that weight back on.

Far from being helpful in losing weight long term, dieting may well be the cause of women with weight loss issues remaining overweight!

THE DANGEROUS NEW FAD DIET

Nutritionists have expressed concern over a dangerous new fad diet which bans everything but water, tea and coffee, it was reported this week.

Water Fasting involves trying to lose weight by eating no food and only taking in the three beverages.

The trend has become popular on social media with thousands of people using the hashtag #waterfast to document their progress and encourage others to take part.

But critics have warned it could be ‘the most dangerous diet ever’ and said that it was taking the trend for cleansing way too far.

Eating disorder expert Joanne Labiner likened Water Fasting to conditions like anorexia and said it should be avoided, especially at a time of year when people are considering slimming down after Christmas.

She said: ‘It can be so bad for your organs. That’s why people with anorexia can die of a heart attack. Their body feeds on their heart.

‘Our body thinks it’s an emergency and tries to prevent that fat storage from being used up, and it feeds on the muscle’.

So in the words of the popular Disney song… ‘Let It Go!’

Naturally slim women do not diet and give themselves permission to ditch anything that claims to be a ‘weight loss diet’.

If you are aiming to lose weight and become a naturally slim woman you must stop doing what fat people do and start doing what slim, fit, healthy people do.

That means ‘no dieting’.

2. They trust themselves to eat intuitively

Naturally women instinctively know what to eat and how much to eat.

All the dieting you have done in the past has just ‘programmed’ that intuition out of you.

Do yourself a big favour and get rid of all your diet books and magazines. Save your money by cancelling your weekly ‘diet’ club membership.

In order to get rid of your diet mentality and establish the behaviour of a naturally slim woman, you need to remove yourself from the dieting environment too.

By attending a weekly diet meeting you are surrounding yourself with people who are constantly repeating a pattern of behaviour that is proven not to work.

So, from today, start surrounding yourself with naturally slim, fit healthy people, and start to behave in the same way they do.

‘Dieting’ is a negative, restrictive way of eating that causes you to feel that you are unable to control your relationship with food without external help, Ms Peckham says

3. They don’t rely on advice as to what they should eat

‘Dieting’ is a negative, restrictive way of eating that causes you to feel that you are unable to control your relationship with food without external help.

It is this external ‘help’ that is holding you in the diet mentality and preventing you from becoming a naturally slim woman.

From today take every opportunity to take back control of what you eat, when you eat it and how much of it you eat.

I can promise you this, no-one but you really knows how much food you need to eat at any one time or what type of food is right for you.

You know this for yourself instinctively but have to give yourself a break and let it happen.

It can be scary at first to take total responsibility for deciding what you want to eat and when you want to eat it.

It’s a bit like the first time you went out driving your car all by yourself after you’d passed your driving test.

You nervously started the car up and drove extremely carefully, remembering everything your instructor had taught you and concentrating really hard.

ENGLISH BREAKFAST TEA COULD HELP…

English breakfast tea may aid weight loss by boosting metabolism, but only if it is drunk without milk, research revealed in October.

A black brew is thought to raise metabolism as its larger molecules are poorly absorbed in the intestine, which may encourage the growth of weight loss-boosting bacteria.

It is thought English breakfast tea only relaxes blood vessels, which leads to improved blood flow, when taken without milk.

The University of California, Los Angeles, study also found both black and green tea appear to have weight-loss benefits by reducing levels of intestinal bacteria associated with obesity and increasing those linked to lean body mass.

Can you remember how you felt after that? I’m willing to that bet you felt amazing, totally in control and really proud of yourself.

It will be exactly the same when you take back control of your relationship with food.

Instead of weighing, measuring, counting calories or points you must focus instead on what foods your body needs and the nutrients you’re feeding it.

4. They eat until they are no longer hungry

Focusing on ‘weight loss’ can lead to yo-yo dieting, constantly obsessing about food and a cycle of losing weight only to put it all back on again.

To start changing your relationship with food in order to have the behaviour and habits of a naturally slim woman, you need to change your focus from ‘weight loss’ to ‘becoming healthy’.

Before you eat anything ask yourself, ‘Is eating this particular food going to help me to become healthier?’ If it will, then give yourself permission to eat that food as long as you are physically hungry.

Always ask yourself if you are physically hungry before eating anything.

Pay attention to your body and focus on whether you are actually hungry before you decide to eat and stop eating when you are ‘no longer hungry’.

Almost every diet you have ever been on will tell you that you ‘eat until you are full’. From today change that to ‘eat until you are no longer hungry’.

You will be amazed at what a difference that one small change to your language will make to the quantity of food that you eat.

Very soon you will be confident that you can reduce your portions sizes naturally without any external control at all.

Restrictions can sometimes lead to nutrient deficiencies and deprivation as well as an unhealthy relationship with food

5. They eat what they want when they want it

‘Diets’ teach you about restricting calories, types or quantities of food. They give you lists of ‘good and bad’ foods or ‘forbidden’ lists.

Often they give you lists of ‘free foods’ implying that you can eat as much as you like of these particular foods.

This can lead to craving certain foods, obsessing about them until you ‘give in’ and then you feel like you’ve failed.

CUT BACK ON YOUR CALORIES!

Britons are being urged to cut their meals to just 1,600 calories a day and 200 calories for snacks under new health guidelines, it was reported today.

They will be told they should limit themselves to 400 calories for breakfast, 600 for lunch and 600 for dinner.

This comes to 1,600 calories, below the current recommended daily intake of 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 for men. Those who exercise regularly can have even more.

People who follow the new guidelines can also eat two healthy snacks of up to 100 calories each.

The suggestions from Public Health England (PHE) do not include drinks, but snacks and healthy hydration are likely to keep the total below the current recommendations.

PHE, which is the Government agency for preventing ill health, claimed they are merely a ‘rule of thumb’ rather than strict limits.

Then you punish yourself by ‘bingeing’ on foods that are not healthy for you.

These restrictions can lead to nutrient deficiencies and deprivation as well as an unhealthy relationship with food, so make yourself a promise not to do that to yourself ever again.

Let go of the fear that if you are not on a ‘diet’ that you will not lose weight. You have dieted over and over again proving that it is the worst possible way of losing weight.

Not only because we now know that diets do not work long-term, but also because almost every diet out there involves being miserable because you are hungry, or can’t eat certain foods or at certain times.

Naturally slim women, eat whatever they want but only when they are physically hungry and then they stop eating when they are no longer hungry.

6. They listen to their bodies

Asking yourself this quick set of questions before you eat will help you to improve your relationship with food and become a naturally slim woman:

Am I physically hungry? Is this what I really want to eat? Will this food help me to become slimmer and healthier?

How will I feel after I have eaten this? Will eating this food help me to feel energised and satisfied or overfull and sluggish? Do I need to eat this now?

By answering these questions to yourself each time you eat, you will be constantly re-enforcing your new relationship with food and re-programming yourself with the eating habits of a naturally slim woman.

7. They love and accept their bodies

Often women start a diet because they want to change how they look.

By committing to a diet you are subconsciously telling yourself that there is something wrong with you, that there is something about you that you do not like.

This has to change. From today you are going to change your relationship with food because you love yourself and you deserve to put the very best fuel possible into your body.

You need to take as much care of yourself as you would a racehorse if you were the owner to ensure you are a naturally healthy woman, Ms Peckham says

The time has come to put yourself first and really look after yourself.

You cannot look after yourself properly unless you truly love yourself and are prepared to care for yourself in the best way possible.

Think of it this way, if you had saved and bought yourself a racehorse you would make sure that you put that racehorse in the best stables where it would be well looked after and exercised regularly.

You would ensure it had the best trainer you could afford and that it was given food that was balanced and nutritious to ensure that it was in tip-top condition.

It would then be fair to expect that your racehorse would be the fittest and happiest it could be, and the chances are that it would race to the best of its ability.

HOW THE WEIGHING SCALES MAY HELP

Forget endless salads and countless sit-ups, the key to losing weight could be as simple as stepping on the scales each day.

Men and women who weighed themselves daily lost three times as much weight as other dieters, a Duke University study found in 2015.

Those who weighed themselves seven days a week shed almost a stone and a half in six months – a figure any slimmer would be proud of.

It is also well above the minimum amount of weight loss needed to cut the risk of heart disease and other illnesses.

It is thought that daily weigh-ins help slimmers keep track of their weight – allowing them to take action immediately if the dial starts to creep up again.

Seeing their weight fall in front of their eyes may also motivate them to stick to their diet and make it easier for them to resist temptation.

If, on the other hand, you left it in a small shed at the bottom of the garden, chained up so it couldn’t move around much and fed it on burgers and cake washed down with sugary drinks, it would almost certainly be the case that your racehorse would deteriorate from being a fit, healthy animal to one that was lethargic, overweight and possibly ill as well.

Now ask yourself, which racehorse owner would you be?

You need to take as much care of yourself as you would take of that racehorse if you were the owner to ensure you become a naturally healthy woman.

8. They rarely weigh themselves

They do not obsess about the numbers on the scale as they do not need to. Their clothes fit, and they feel good, and that’s what matters.

Constantly weighing yourself can have a negative effect as your weight could be fluctuating for many different reasons.

Losing weight and losing fat are not the same. There can be many reasons why the numbers on the scale go up and down.

It could be due to fluid retention, building more muscle, atmospheric pressure or just the ‘time of the month’.

It can even be different depending on whether your scales are standing on a hard floor or a carpeted floor.

Naturally slim women are not concerned with numbers. If your clothes fit and you feel and look slim, then what does it matter if you weigh 8 stone 7 lbs or 9 stone 2 lbs?

Studies show that obsessively checking your weight can have a profound effect on your self-esteem and feelings of self-worth.

Stop doing something that can potentially make you feel bad about yourself. Start caring for yourself instead.

This article originally appeared on Healthista and has been reproduced with their permission.